Sheri's Solutions: 'The reason I left was ...'

"Why did you leave your last dentist and come to our office?"

The question appears on every dental registration form. This is a seemingly benign initial inquiry that every efficient business manager and dentist will ask a new patient. One would hope the practitioner would like to know what obstacles the patient has encountered before joining a practice. As we all have patients coming and going during the lifetime of our practice, it is always interesting to hear why people leave.

Three of the biggest reasons patients leave are simple: money, benefits, and location. The money situation may be twofold. If patients do not perceive the value of the dental services you are proposing, or if they owe a lot of money they do not want to pay, they leave the practice. Several times, over the course of my practice, patients have received dental treatment, and the front desk person did not collect at the time of service. Patients do tend to walk away with the dentistry performed in their mouths every day. We would expect they pay for these services, but there is a group of patients who get work completed and never pay their balances. Sad but true.

Sheri B. Doniger, DDS.

Benefits also are a big determining factor. Plans change. Employments change. Participation in dental benefit plans also may be a factor. If your patients previously had a plan that allowed them to see "any" dentist, as opposed to someone off of a list, and then the policy changed, they may not want to, or be able to, continue care. Patient loyalty is definitely tested with these benefit plans. For those of you who do not take any dental reimbursement from benefit plans, you don't have these issues.

Finally, location is a large factor. Patients move. Families change. With the more mobile society we live in, a new place of employment may not allow for easy scheduling due to distance. Day care may not be readily available, and appointment times may not be convenient.

Of course, patients leave for many other reasons. Recently, I heard a few very interesting stories. I had a new patient join our practice who told me her dentist was watching TV during the treatment. I had asked her, "Was he watching a monitor, performing microsurgery through a microscope?" She said, no, he was watching actual television. "Like, 'Dancing with the Stars'?" I asked? She said yes. This woman said she had no idea what his focus was on when he was working on her. I always thought the screens in the treatment room were for the patient's comfort, not the dentist's entertainment.

Another incident speaks to the patient whose dentist told her she didn't have to worry about her teeth since she was going to lose all of them by the time she was 40. This woman was so mortified that she stayed away from a dental office for more than 12 years. She is in her early 30 now and reticent to return to have dental care. When she learned that she had minimal dental issues, she was very relieved. So, not only fear of the unknown but fateful words from her dentist kept her away.

Finally, another woman spoke about a practice she visited that had a roof leak. The particle ceiling had "fallen in," and the office was covered in dust. She said the room was "cleaned," but there was still dust from the ceiling (and who knows what else) covering everything in the room, aside from the chair and counter. She said the office was filthy. Not dirty or dusty but filthy. She was worried about the cleanliness of the instruments since he never took the time to clean up the space properly.

For these three women who left practices for definite reasons, you wonder why others stayed in those practices. Could it have been a miscommunication and misinterpretation of the woman whose dentist told her she would be in dentures by the time she reached 40? Or, the woman who may have thought the office was unclean only saw some minor debris resting on the way top of a cabinet? Possibly.

These situations are most likely more common than not. The statistics say that only 40% of the population visits the dentist annually and that number is decreasing. For all of these situations, the lack of care of the practitioner is evident. Patients will leave their dentist because they do not think they care about them, only their money. They feel they are a number, not a person. They my hear one word but interpret it as another. For whatever reason, patients leave.

All it tells me is that if patients leave my practice due to location, benefit change, or financial reasons, I may understand. I would hope to have exit interviews with these patients, thanking them for their trust in our dental care for the previous years, although sometimes that does not happen.

After listening to these stories and hearing the patient's gratitude that I took the time to ask, I believe it is important to remember one thing. If patients are happy, they may tell two or three people. If they are unhappy, especially in a world of immediate social venting, they will tell the world. I would much rather have a few compliments than a boat load of complaints, albeit some unfounded. You can't please everyone. But, you can certainly have a better relationship with your patient and have a nicer "why I left" story than these women.

Sheri B. Doniger, DDS, practices clinical dentistry in Lincolnwood, IL. She is currently vice president and president-elect of the American Association of Women Dentists and editor of the American Association of Women Dentists "Chronicle" newsletter. She has served as an educator in several dental and dental hygiene programs, has been a consultant for a major dental benefits company, and has written for several dental publications. You can reach her at [email protected].

The comments and observations expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the opinions of DrBicuspid.com, nor should they be construed as an endorsement or admonishment of any particular idea, vendor, or organization.